NEW YORK— The worldwide analog semiconductor market is on track this year to grow 5.1 percent, increasing at a slower clip than the overall semiconductor industry, according to a market report from Semico Research Corp.
Revenue is expected to reach $44.48 billion, compared with $42.34 billion in 2011. Semico, however, forecasts stronger growth in 2013 with revenue exceeding $50 billion, putting the growth rate in the double-digits at 12.6 percent.
Analog revenue is heavily weighted to communications products, but there are several market growth drivers, including automotive, energy, mobility and medical/healthcare.
"That’s a little bit lower than total semiconductor market—it's kind of disappointing," said Adrienne Downey, director of manufacturing research at Semico (Phoenix), adding that Semicon forecasts total semiconductor sales will grow 8.6 percent this year.
Still, sales in all of the analog chip segments, including amplifiers and comparators, interface, special consumer, power management, data conversion circuits and "other linear," are projected to show an upward sales trend this year and into 2013.
Data conversion circuits are expected to post the largest gains this year with sales growing 18.3 percent, to $3.2 billion, followed by interface chips with sales forecast to jump 14.3 percent, to $2.6 billion.
The "other linear" category is the largest segment, with 2012 sales expected to reach $17.4 billion compared with $16.9 billion the previous year. Power management is a distant second with anticipated 2012 sales of $9.6 billion versus $9.2 billion in 2011.
Market share leadersTexas Instruments was the top analog chip vendor again last year with 15 percent market share, increasing its position over 2010, when it accounted for 14 percent of the market. TI's analog chip sales jumped 6.6 percent, to nearly $6.4 billion. Meanwhile, STMicroelectronics NV placed second again with 10 percent of the market, even though its sales fell 3.7 percent to $4.2 billion. And Analog Devices Inc. earned the third spot again, with 6 percent of the overall market.
source: Semico Research Corp.